click to enlargeA UK-based startup, Smart Respiratory Products, has successfully Kickstarted its smartphone/tablet-based peak flow meter and app with a total pledge to date of £11,322 (just over $14,000). Targeted to asthmatics, the meter plugs into the 3.5 mm audio jack (left). Like a standard peak flow meter, the user blows into the Smart Peak Flow meter, and the measurement is sent to the app, available through the Apple Store and Google Play. The measurement must be taken in a well-lit area, as the ambient light is chopped up by a photo sensor at the bottom as the patient’s forceful breath passes through a fan. The flashing signal goes into the microphone as a sound file.

The app measures the force of breath and charts it. It also engages the user through challenges, “personal bests” and winning streaks. There are also virtual badges awarded and snappy ‘earned quotes’. Those who take the ’90 Day Challenge’ of daily use receive an inhaler monitor, a cap that transmits to the phone when the inhaler is used.

Smart does not mention other respiratory uses for the peak flow meter, such as COPD.

According to MedCityNews, the company plans to complete its 510(k) and CE Mark applications by mid-2017. They will ship IFU prototypes to its Kickstarter supporters in February. The pricing on Kickstarter for the device is £10 with deluxe versions starting at £16. MedCityNews also noted that Sparo Labs’ Wing, which we profiled in November 2015, gained its FDA clearance in June but is at a $129 price. Founder Thomas Antalffy of Smart: “I have spoken to pharmaceutical companies, and the dream for me would be to include Smart Peak Flow or the smart inhaler with every box of inhalers people buy.” At his prices, it might be possible.

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Telehealth and Telecare Aware posts pointers to a broad range of news items. Authors of those items often use terms 'telecare' and telehealth' in inventive and idiosyncratic ways. Telecare Aware's editors can generally live with that variation. However, when we use these terms we usually mean:

• Telecare: from simple personal alarms (AKA pendant/panic/medical/social alarms, PERS, and so on) through to smart homes that focus on alerts for risk including, for example: falls; smoke; changes in daily activity patterns and 'wandering'. Telecare may also be used to confirm that someone is safe and to prompt them to take medication. The alert generates an appropriate response to the situation allowing someone to live more independently and confidently in their own home for longer.

• Telehealth: as in remote vital signs monitoring. Vital signs of patients with long term conditions are measured daily by devices at home and the data sent to a monitoring centre for response by a nurse or doctor if they fall outside predetermined norms. Telehealth has been shown to replace routine trips for check-ups; to speed interventions when health deteriorates, and to reduce stress by educating patients about their condition.

Telecare Aware's editors concentrate on what we perceive to be significant events and technological and other developments in telecare and telehealth. We make no apology for being independent and opinionated or for trying to be interesting rather than comprehensive.